Plan for a Mobile First World

In his great keynote speech at IMS 2012 in San Francisco, Rick Bakas said, “We have to think mobile first, desktop second.” (I admit that I heard absolutely zero percent of the rest of the speech, because that little seed was enough to plant a forest in my head.) But in case that wasn’t enough, I had an experience a few hours later that fertilized the point and forced the issue.

It turns out that in San Francisco, getting a taxi to actually stop and pick you up is a bit of a chore. I met one cab driver who told me that he’d met several mayors and heads of government, simply because he’s a role model because he picks up more passengers than most drivers. (Now, before some union or other association wants to complain that I’m misrepresenting drivers in SF, I have no idea of the details. This is my experience + what I was told.)

Thank goodness another cab driver told me about Cabulous, this mobile app that lets you notify a driver that you need a pick-up without having to call the dispatcher at all. This saved Jacq and me a bunch of time, and just generally made travel work better for us in SF. Plus, it gave the driver more fares without having to wait for his dispatcher or guess where people were waiting. It worked well (in San Francisco, mind you- a very high tech area).

But this is just the story that leads me to the conversation.

A Mobile First World

I’m planning a new event that takes an even bigger, more innovative swing at how mid-sized to larger businesses will function around this digital channel. In putting it all together, I’m paying more attention to how businesses of all sizes utilize the various tools at their disposal to conduct business. For instance, I’ve been paying a lot more attention to how mobile changes the game.

For instance, this cab driver doesn’t need to have a blog. He doesn’t need a board on Pinterest. Cabulous is a mobile-first solution that gives him more buyers. Because his business is built on a simple transaction, why should he bother with all the frills? He shouldn’t.

But what about you? Are your business interactions as simple? And are you built around a mobile-first mindset? I’m guessing you’re not. I know that I’m not. My sites are all mobile-ready and mobile-enhanced, partly because I use a mobile-friendly theme from Studiopress (affiliate link), and also because I use a mobile-formatting plugin for [chrisbrogan.com] (called wptouch). We need to think even more about this.

The Mobile-First World and You

Look from your side of the equation first: you sleep with your smartphone right beside the bed, don’t you? You reach for it first thing in the morning. You never leave the house without it. You put it on the table at breakfast like a gunslinger. You’re even starting to do some business functions via your mobile devices.

So, that’s you as the user. What about you as the business owner, as the collaborator, as the face of interactions between others and your company? What do you have to do to prepare? What steps will you take?

We’ll talk about marketing, but also about collaboration, internal business functions, and whatever else I can wring out of Chuck’s brilliant mind. This conversation isn’t one to miss, as I have a lot to ask him, after hearing from Rick Bakas and observing Cabulous in action.